Oscar Piastri eyeing epic 45-year first after brutal act from McLaren teammate
Hometown hero Oscar Piastri says he's "the most relaxed" he's been heading into an Australian Grand Prix, despite being denied a special piece of history by McLaren teammate, Lando Norris. Melbourne-born Piastri will start second on the grid behind Norris for Sunday's race at Albert Park but came within a whisker of becoming the first Australian to claim pole for his home race.
Piastri had history within his grasp after going to the top of the times with just seconds remaining in qualifying, until McLaren teammate Norris denied the local hope in dramatic fashion. Norris had an earlier lap time deleted for exceeding track limits but almost immediately went faster than Piastri after seeing the home crowd erupt at his teammate's sizzling time.
In a cruel twist for Piastri, he was pipped to pole by just eight hundredths of a second as Norris completed a McLaren one-two. Piastri insisted he wasn't too disappointed after giving it everything he had, but admitted he would have liked to be one place higher on the grid and taken his place in Australian motorsport history.
'Pretty happy. It's obviously great to start the year on the font row - only one position back from what I would've liked,' Piastri said. 'Just not quite enough in Q3 but I'm pretty happy with a solid start. Sector three I lost a little bit of time ... maybe left a little bit on the table but it was pretty tricky out there for everybody.
"I wouldn't say I'm disappointed (not to get pole) because I feel like I did a job that I'm happy with. I think if I was sitting here going I had another two-tenths in hand and I blew it then I'd be pretty upset. But I feel like I've executed well this weekend so that's all I can ask for myself."
📻 "Not a bad way to start the year"Kicking off the season with a front-row lockout for @McLaren 🟠#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/XuayZNbDD1
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 15, 2025
Piastri now has a chance to become the first hometown winner of the Australian Open in 45 years, when Aussie motorsport legend Alan Jones raced to victory in 1980. Piastri will have the majority of a massive crowd inside the Albert Park circuit cheering him on, but the 23-year-old says he's feeling relaxed and not about to let the weight of expectation burden him.
Piastri won two races last season to help his McLaren team claim an unexpected constructors championship and he's hoping to keep that momentum going in the year's first race.
"This is the most relaxed I've been at my home race," Piastri said. "The first two years, especially the first year I came here, it was a pretty overwhelming experience. Even last year, it was still a pretty big experience. This year I've just been able to enjoy it a bit more; maybe because I've been a bit more confident in the car under me.
"But I've really been enjoying it and been enjoying the support. I feel like the support's gone up a little bit since last year as well. It's amazing what happens when you start winning stuff. But no, it's great to have all the home support and very appreciated."
Norris admitted his pole position was bittersweet as it came at the expense of his teammate and a slice of history, but the Englishman said it was just part of the sport. "It's also my job, and it's what I get paid to do," Norris said. "What's written in my contract is I have to go out and drive as quick as I can. It's a difficult one because every country backs their drivers a lot."
Piastri's fellow Australian, Jack Doohan, will start his first home GP from 14th after putting in a solid effort before being eliminated in Q2. "Unlucky with the yellow flag, which brought a close to our chances," Doohan said. "We were looking very strong, even on that (last) lap, we were two-tenths up before that happened."
Red Bull's four-time world champion Max Verstapppen will start behind the McLarens in third, one spot ahead of Mercedes driver George Russell. Fellow Brit and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamiton qualified eighth in his highly-anticipated driving debut for Ferrari. Haas rookie Oliver Bearman's nightmare weekend continued as he failed to record a lap time after suffering gearbox trouble and will start from 20th and last on the grid.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Incongruity of World Test Championship final fails to dampen Australian excitement
In Australia it is winter, and it is footy season. AFL, NRL, the works. The autumn was passing strange, with unnervingly high temperatures and Gold Coast Suns in the top four. But now it is June, and feeling more as it should, with nights in the southern half of the continent dipping deep into single degrees. The Raiders must be breathing out steam on Canberra mornings, half remembering dreams of ending a premiership wait. And strangely positioned among all this, the Australian Test team is getting ready to play cricket. Australian winter tours happen, but outside the occasional Asian or Caribbean jaunt this century, they're confined to quadrennial visits to England. Two years ago, the first time Australia qualified for a World Test Championship final, that match came directly before an Ashes series. As well as turning the supposed culmination into an incongruous entree, it also made the WTC final melt into the Ashes summer. Advertisement Related: Pat Cummins: 'We want to play hard and fair, and I think we've got it right' This time, things are different. England will shortly start another five-Test series with India, but neither side is involved in the WTC. So it will be England the cricket board rather than England the cricket team that hosts Australia and South Africa, whose struggle for the right to be called world champions will be based not on a series but a single match. An imperfect mechanism, but it means that this time around, in an Australian consciousness, that match will stand alone. So it is that among the footy news of dawn beach sessions and tribunal verdicts, Pat Cummins is back at Lord's this week after half the time that an Ashes cycle would otherwise dictate, wearing the green cap and blazer while wandering about the pavilion doing moody photo shoots as one half of an exercise in height contrast with South Africa's Temba Bavuma. Their squads run drills on the main turf, the pleasantness of white knitted jumpers covering the ugliness of synthetic training kit. The timing may be incongruous, but that classic visual cue says it's time for a Test. The ICC has gone full-court press on promotion, making sure these images are distributed far and wide. Their Hall of Fame announcement was what the marketing types might call something like a brand crossover activation, with four of the seven inductees reflecting the upcoming contest: for South Africa, batting contemporaries Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla; for Australia, their rival Matthew Hayden, along with New Zealand player but current Australia assistant coach Daniel Vettori. Advertisement Approaching the third WTC final, the concept of a Test format decider is starting to cut through. Press access is oversubscribed, largely by English publications for a neutral contest. Public tickets are sold out. It will be a different crowd to the usual. London has plenty of Australians and South Africans, and the latter are starving for global tournament success in any form, so expect both camps to turn out in numbers. After the unhinged reaction that Lord's gave Australia in 2023, in a spontaneous bout of moralising from the Long Room to the back rows, it might make for a nicer atmosphere to have the England supporter base diluted. It will still be plenty aggressive on the field. Kagiso Rabada's preparatory outing against Zimbabwe was vicious, the ball rising from a length at serious pace again and again. Marco Jansen swings it left-arm from a release point about 10ft off the ground. Keshav Maharaj is a vastly experienced left-arm spinner who the Australians in their World Cup semi-final treated with a respect bordering on hypnosis. The fourth link in that bowling chain could be several options, but none that maintains the proven quality of the other three. The Australians have an edge there, with Cummins likely to join Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood yet again in a fully rounded attack. When Scott Boland took 10 Indian wickets in the Sydney Test last January, he looked the man, but Hazlewood recovered from injury to dominate a title-winning IPL season. Boland has been wildly successful in scant opportunities, but Hazlewood has 279 Test wickets, and last year took them at 13 runs apiece. Current Australian selection tends towards stability, so career-length pedigree should pip one of the best understudies the game has seen. Related: Australia v South Africa: where the World Test Championship final will be won and lost Advertisement Likewise, the other selection questions feel all but decided. Sam Konstas is unlikely to be thrown in at Lord's as he was at the MCG, with Marnus Labuschagne the seasoned candidate to open instead. That means Cameron Green takes Labuschagne's slot at No 3, after a run-filled county cricket stint. With Green unable to be a fifth bowler due to injury, Beau Webster stays at six. Though if selectors trust the fitness of their four main bowlers, Josh Inglis should be considered for that spot, not just because of his recent century on debut in Sri Lanka, but his ability to problem-solve so many batting situations. Whatever the configuration, the players are excited, the press attentive, and the audience has committed. The Test decider is vindicated further each time it is played. It may be a strange time of year for an Antipodean, and a strange tournament structure for anybody involved. But the important thing now is the game: jumpers on, caps fitted, seats taken, rain cursed, sunshine welcomed. Channel changed. The footy can wait a week.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
ICC Honors Seven Cricket Stars with Hall of Fame Induction
ICC Honors Seven Cricket Stars with Hall of Fame Induction originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has inducted seven players into its Hall of Fame, recognizing their enduring impact on the sport during a ceremony at London's renowned Abbey Road Studios. Advertisement The Class of 2025 features five men's cricket icons: Hashim Amla, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, and Daniel Vettori, alongside women's cricket pioneers Sana Mir and Sarah Taylor. Their inclusion brings the total number of Hall of Fame members to 122. 'This year, we are privileged to induct seven truly outstanding individuals into this prestigious group,' said ICC Chairman Jay Shah. 'On behalf of the ICC, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to each of them and hope they cherish this well-deserved recognition as a defining moment in their cricketing journey.' Amla, who scored over 9,000 runs in Tests for South Africa, described the honor as 'surreal,' adding, 'It is an honour to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, especially alongside Graeme.' India's Dhoni, famed for leading his country to titles in all three major ICC formats, remarked, 'To have your name remembered alongside such all-time greats is a wonderful feeling.' Advertisement Former Australian opener Hayden, once the holder of the highest Test score, called the honor 'incredible,' while Smith, South Africa's longest-serving captain, noted, 'This is also a proud moment for South Africa.' New Zealand's Vettori, who amassed over 300 wickets in both Tests and ODIs, said he was 'overwhelmed' to join such esteemed company. Pakistan's Sana Mir reflected on her journey: 'From dreaming as a little girl that one day there would even be a women's team… this is a moment I couldn't have dared to imagine.' England's Taylor, known for her sharp glove work and World Cup heroics, said, 'Being inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame is one of the best moments of my life.' Advertisement The ceremony, aired globally by ICC broadcast partners, also marked the lead-up to the ICC World Test Championship Final between South Africa and Australia at Lord's. This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 10, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pat Cummins: ‘We want to play hard and fair, and I think we've got it right'
As Pat Cummins opens up at the pavilion end, while gazing across the vast empty space of Lord's a few days before Australia face South Africa in the World Test Championship final, it's clear that the unexpected opponents this week have helped to frame his remarkable career. On Wednesday morning, while towering a foot over Temba Bavuma, his 5ft 3in South African counterpart, Cummins will lead Australia for the 34th time, in his 68th Test. The fast bowler stands at the summit of world cricket, his grizzled matinee idol charm allied to the grit which has helped him to become such a successful captain. Australia have won almost everything during his tenure of three and a half years and they are expected to retain their Test title. Advertisement Related: Australia v South Africa: where the World Test Championship final will be won and lost But South Africa have been at the heart of the darker moments, from sporting humiliation to moral ignominy, which have dented Australian cricket since Cummins made his international debut. As a teenager he was selected for Australia's tour of South Africa in 2011. Cummins was 12th man for the first Test at Newlands in Cape Town, which would be the site of the sandpaper scandal that shredded Australia's reputation in 2018, and he watched in shock as his teammates were bowled out for 47 and crushed in two and a half days. 'That was my first real taste of Test cricket, inside the changing room,' Cummins says ruefully. 'I remember being really nervous, even though I wasn't playing, and fielded for two overs. One ball got hit to me and I fumbled it. I was an 18-year-old thinking: 'Wow, I'm in the middle of all this.'' Cummins was called up for the second Test in Johannesburg against a great South Africa side including Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel. 'It felt like the real deal. I'd played a little T20 for Australia where there was a comfort level. But being around Test cricket, and seeing some greats of the game I'd grown up watching on TV, made me think: 'Oh, this is real.' I was playing alongside Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey and feeling confused as to how I ended up in that position.' Advertisement Cummins took seven wickets, including six in South Africa's second innings, before scoring an unbeaten 13 as he and Mitchell Johnson steered Australia to a nerve-shredding target of 310 eight wickets down. Named player of the match on his debut, Cummins was flying. Yet he didn't play another Test for five years and four months as his injury-ravaged body struggled with the demands of professional cricket. Cummins is grateful now for that delay and he tells a couple of self-deprecating stories which reflect his character. 'It had all come quite easy. Before that tour I'd played three first‑class games and in lots of ways I'd no right to be in the team. I was very fortunate but then it all comes crashing down. The next few years there were lots of injuries and questions: 'Am I good enough? Do I have to find a real job?' It was tough and you're trying to enter the world as an adult. But I learnt patience and consistency and, in some ways, I was very lucky to not have it all on a plate.' His parents also grounded him. 'One of their biggest worries was me getting too big for my boots and, no doubt, I probably did at certain times. There was one instance where I was doing uni part-time. I met the vice-chancellor, who I later found out was the most important person at university. I'd thought: 'Oh, it can't be that serious if he's vice.' He welcomed me to university and I tried my luck. I was catching the train to uni and it was a nuisance so I said: 'Do you have any car park spots you could give me?' Very politely he said: 'No, but maybe we can find you a paid parking spot.' I told Mum and she went ballistic, which was never her style.' Advertisement The 32-year-old's smile is tangled. He lost his mother, Maria, to cancer in 2023 but, with affection, he remembers her saying: ''How dare you ask for that? Who do you think you are?' She made me email him back to say: 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.'' Eighteen months later he met his wife, Becky, who comes from Harrogate in Yorkshire. They were in a bar in Sydney and Cummins told her he was a student. 'I was into my second or third recurrence of a back stress-fracture. I was a part-time uni student doing rehab so I would have felt a fraud if I'd said I was a professional cricketer.' His cover was blown when, soon after they met, Becky turned a corner in Sydney and saw Cummins wearing his whites in a giant KFC poster. There will be no escaping his importance this week and Cummins pauses when I ask if he is surprised to be facing South Africa. 'In some ways you expect India to be around. England have been quite strong at home and New Zealand always seem to get to finals. But the same case could be made for South Africa in ICC events. We just don't see a lot of them in Test cricket but it's nice and different to an Australia-India final.' He shrugs off Michael Vaughan's comments that, after beating 'pretty much nobody', South Africa 'don't warrant being in the final'. Cummins says: 'You can only beat who you come up against. Our route to the final was pretty tough but I don't blame South Africa for having a different route.' As to how South Africa might perform at Lord's, Cummins says: 'It's hard to say because there are so many unknowns. We haven't played them much [with their last Test series ending in an easy Australian victory at home in 2022-23] but you've got to be really well balanced to make the final. Their bowling has always stood out and it's no different now. [Keshav] Maharaj is a really solid spinner and they've always got plenty of quick bowlers who pose a challenge.' Advertisement Kagiso Rabada, the spearhead of South Africa's bowling attack, recently served a one-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. There has been speculation in South Africa that Australia will sledge Rabada mercilessly. 'It's not really our style,' Cummins says. 'I'd be surprised if that came up.' Australia have made legitimate changes to their abrasive cricket since the 2018 sandpaper saga against South Africa. Cummins, who is an ambassador for New Balance, exemplifies the improved reputation. But the ball-tampering saga remains an awkward topic. He listens quietly while I tell him about my 2021 interview with Cameron Bancroft who, as a callow opening batter trying to find his way in Test cricket, followed instructions to use sandpaper to rough up the ball. His captain, Steve Smith, David Warner and Bancroft were banned and the batter, when pressed on whether any of the bowlers had known of the plan, told me that 'it's probably self-explanatory'. Cummins took seven wickets in that Test, which Australia lost heavily, and I ask if he really had no idea what was being done to the ball. 'I don't want to talk about it,' he says bluntly. He concedes, however, that the fate of his two predecessors, Smith and Tim Paine, who both resigned tearfully, made him apprehensive about assuming the captaincy in 2021. 'There was a lot of trepidation. One, because I was uncertain how I was going to go as a captain. I didn't really have any experience. But also trepidation because it's a big role and things can turn against you overnight. Part of me thought: 'Maybe captaincy isn't for me.' But there're enough great parts of the job I really enjoy.' Advertisement What are the hardest aspects? 'When things aren't going well and you've got to be the front of that. You've got to keep everyone positive, chat to media, keep the team aligned. But I've been very lucky that there haven't been too many of those moments. When they have cropped up, the playing group bands together and makes us stronger.' This week marks the first Test that Australia have played at Lord's since the drama two years ago when England were chasing a big total with an inspired Ben Stokes and a pugnacious Jonny Bairstow at the crease. The last ball of the 52nd over flew harmlessly into the gloves of the Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Bairstow thought he had made sure he was in his crease before strolling down the pitch. Carey threw the ball and hit the stumps, Australia appealed and the umpire, who hadn't called for the end of the over, raised his finger. There was outrage in the ground and the Long Room where the florid anger of many MCC members was accompanied by booing and shouts of 'shame' as the Australians walked past. Warner and Usman Khawaja were even confronted by heated England supporters. 'It was a series with such high emotion,' Cummins says. 'Everyone was so wound up but my gut reaction was pretty similar to what I feel now. If you take all the emotion away it's just a simple out and you don't need to make it any bigger. It's out, move on. I've seen it happen before.' Advertisement When Cummins missed the Champions Trophy this year his stand-in, Smith, withdrew a run‑out appeal after Afghanistan's Noor Ahmad ambled out of his crease in a group game. It suggested some kind of change in Australian attitudes, but Cummins says: 'I can't remember that specifically. Sorry. I think it was slightly different circumstances but, look, we want to play hard and fair and I think over my tenure we've got it right just about every time.' Would he do it again? 'Yes,' Cummins says firmly of Bairstow's stumping. The view in the Australian camp is that England would do the same and they 'tried it three times' previously. All this is said calmly, five months before Ashes hostilities resume in Australia. Cummins is vague about England's excitement around Jacob Bethell – he has heard the talk 'a little bit,' adding: 'When he batted [on his Test debut in New Zealand] was it three? I haven't seen much.' He also glosses over England's current uncertainty around their injury‑riddled bowling attack. 'I don't really care. It feels so long away.' Cummins admits that his all-conquering team are approaching the end of an era. 'Yes. No doubt. We've got quite a few players who are past their mid-30s and there seems to be a natural attrition rate into the late‑30s. If you'd asked me a year or two ago I would have said: 'It's going to be a huge change. There's a little bit to be worried about.' But we've seen Josh Inglis, Sam Konstas, [Nathan] McSweeney debut throughout [Australia's] summer. [Beau] Webster's come in plus a few others have debuted in white-ball cricket. I don't think the transition will be as jarring as we first thought.' Advertisement Does he have concerns about the future of Test cricket – the format he loves most? 'Yes and no. In Australia, no. Each summer it seems to get stronger and stronger. The ticket sales for the Ashes are just berserk the last week. But that's not the reality for many Test-playing nations and one of the beauties about Test cricket is playing in totally different conditions with different challenges. I'd hate Test cricket to turn into only a couple of nations.' In 25 years will Australia and England still be playing Tests against Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa? 'It's really hard to say. I hope so. But if we just let things play out, probably not. There needs to be some intervention and finding a way – maybe its dedicated windows for franchise cricket. I really hope so because they are cricket-loving nations as well. They're always going to have good players and [offer] a tough challenge.' Can Cummins play for another five years? 'Yes, I'd hope so. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are a couple of years older than me, but they don't show any signs of slowing up. I'm trying to look after myself and I'd love to play in my mid-30s. I feel great and physically as good as I have in a few years. I love the job and just want to keep doing it – particularly in Test cricket. I want to keep playing for a long time and do it with good people while making it fun and hopefully winning along the way.'
